Feed-governor for cotton-gins



(No Model.)

H. P. SCHAEFER.

FEED GOVERNOR FOR GOTTON GINS.

No. 289,718. EatentedDec. 4, 1883."

INVENTOR:

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NKTE

TATES PATENT OFFICE.

FEED-GOVERNOR FOR CO T TON-GINS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 289,718, dated December 4, 1883.

Application filed September 2t, 1583. (No model.) 7

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, HENRY P. SCHAEFER, of Schulenburg, in the county of Fayette and State of Texas, have invented a new and Improved Feed- Governor for Cotton- Gins, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

This invention pertains to improvements in feed-governors for cotton-gins; and it consists of the detailed construction and combination of parts, substantially as hereinafter fully set forth and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure l is a side elevation of the feeding mechanism of an ordinary cotton-gin with my feed-governor attached, a part of the boX being broken away. Fig. 2 is a front elevation of the feed-governor, and Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the same.

My invention is applicable to feed-boxes of any of the well-known cotton-gins now in use, and it is therefore unnecessary to describe with particularity the construction of the gins or their feeds.

A is the feed-governor, made as shown in Fig. 2, and composed of two spiral blades, a and a", winding about a shaft, a The blades a a are connected together at the middle a of the shaft a from which point a they wind up in opposite directions, terminating in the stopdisks a at each end of the shaft (L The spiral blade a is a left-hand spiral, and the blade a is a right-hand spiral. The diameter of the spiral blades a a is somewhat greater at the middle of the governor A than at the ends, and tapers each way from'the ,middle to the ends, so that there is less space for cotton to pass under the middle than under the ends of the governor A. The governor A is placedis operated by the driving mechanism of the gin, and the inner part, a7, carries a belt, (1, which passes over the pulley b on the shaft 13, which carries the cleaning-brushes b, which revolve in contact with the stop-disks a The governor A is protected by a cover, E.

The operation is as follows: The governor is, by the belt (1, made to rotate in the direction indicated by the arrow 1, about two hundred and fifty revolutions per minute. A heap of cotton, F, is placed in front of the governor A, and is carried under it by the traveling feed-apron D, which is of the ordinary construction. The cotton thus fed to the governor will be subjected to the action of the right and left hand spiral blades a a ,'whereby it will be spread from the center toward the ends of the feed-box, and be thus evenly distributed upon the apron D. At the same time the cotton is carried forward on the feedingapron D to the gin-saws. The action of the spiral blades is to draw the cotton out laterally and spread it upon the apron. As the governor A is of larger diameter at its middle, more cotton will be drawn laterally from the middle than other portions of the layer, and the layer of cotton, as spread and carried forward on the feeding-apron D, will have a gradually-increased thickness from the middle thereof toward the sides of the. box 0.

It is well known that when the gin-saws are in motion they suck or draw in the cotton fastest at the central part of the saw-shaft, and

they also draw the cotton from the edges of the feed-board toward the center. The central saws consequently become choked by an oversupply at the center and the feed of the cotton is irregular. By my improvement I feed to the saws a layer of cotton that is thinner in the center, and the suction of the central saws will draw in from the thicker edges formed by my governor such a portion of cotton as shall make the whole supply to the gin-saws even and regular, thereby preventing all choking. The revolving brushes b beat off and keep back any cotton that might otherwise be carried over the top of the governor A at the ends of the spiral blades a a or on the, stop-disks a The advantages of my invention are that it prevents the cotton from passing to the saws IOO enable one operator to attend to several ginstands at once.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

assume 1. A cottongin feed-governor composed of spirally-arranged blades which diminish in diameter from the center of the governor-shaft toward the sides of the feed-box, substantially 20 as set forth.

2. The combination, with the spirally-bladed governor provided with the stop-disks a of the cleaning -brushes 7), substantially as described and set forth.

HENRY P. SOHAEFER.

Vitnesses:

EDM. WANGEMANN, IGNAZ RUssEK. 

